Recent re-conceptualisation of paternal involvement (Pleck, J. H. (2010). Paternal involvement: Revised conceptualization and theoretical linkages with child outcomes. In M. Lamb (Ed.), "The role of the father in child development" (5th ed., pp. 67-107). London: Wiley), while proving fruitful, has yet to be applied to investigations into…

There are an increasing number of international sociocultural studies exploring how variances of practice and environment impact upon childhoods. This article is intended to inform the process of selecting settings for comparative study by reflecting on two separate studies of groups which initially appear to be examples of similar services…

Observational data collected in the homes of 17 abuse, 17 neglect, and 19 control families indicated that abusive and neglectful parents demonstrated lower rates of interaction overall and were more likely to emphasize the negative in their relationships with their children. (JMB)

This study, which focused on interactional and contingency aspects of the imitative process, examined the contributions of six normally developing and four moderately retarded children to imitative interactions with their mothers. The subjects were part of a group of 20 mother-child dyads who participated in an 18-month longitudinal study.…

A total of 440 adult couples were observed in eight different kinds of public places. Couples with children were observed to touch, talk, and smile less at one another. But children are disruptive of adult touching and talking, which means that couples with children experience reduced reward levels and less adequate communication. (Author)

Groups of 20 normal and 20 hyperactive boys ranging in age from 6 to 12 years were observed interacting with their mothers in 15-minute free-play and 15-minute structured-task situations. (JMB)

According to Russell et al. ("Developmental Rev" 1998; 18: 313) child-parent interaction could contain horizontal qualities, similar to child-peer interactions. To study this, child-parent and child-peer play interactions were compared on several observed horizontal and vertical characteristics in 55 7-year-old children interacting with their…

Purpose of this paper is to serve as a critical review of the literature concerned with intergenerational differences--to differentiate between "fact and fiction." Findings suggested a dearth of concrete knowledge regarding the entire social issue of intergenerational differences, as well as the nature of family-offspring interaction and the…

This study examined the effect of a day care program on mother-child interaction patterns and attachment behaviors, and compared these patterns of behavior with those obtained from a matched sample of more advantaged home-reared infants. Subjects were 60 infants, ranging in age from 3 1/2 to 9 1/2 months, and their mothers. There were three groups…

This article presented at the American Educational Research Association, Washington, D.C., April 1975, is a critical review of studies concerning the relationship of parental warmth and hostility to sex-related differences in children's achievement orientation. Parental warmth seemed to operate differently upon girls' and boys' achievement…

The extent of isomorphism between parent-child to child-friend microsocial interactions was studied by means of videotaped laboratory and observation coding procedures. Similar tasks, coding systems, and behavior clusters were used to describe the topography of parent-child and child-friend interactions. A total of 200 boys were observed while…

This paper examines current approaches to conceptualizing and studying fathers' interactions with infants from three perspectives: (1) Spence and Helmreich's current trait theory of masculinity and femininity; (2) differentiated levels of inquiry into fatherhood; and (3) Bronfenbrenner's social ecology of the infant. Detailed discussions of each…

This paper discusses findings from a study of the speech patterns of 10 mothers interacting with their own younger child, their own older child, and with an adult. Results are discussed in terms of the temporal-acoustic pattern and content of the mothers' speech. Two claims are made about the kinds of speech a child hears: (1) The flow of speech…

Presents a method of defining cooccurring constellations or "packages" of maternal facial-visual engagement and head or hand stimulation during face-to-face play with an infant. The functional relevance of these packages is documented in case studies of one four-month-old infant playing with his mother and a stranger. (Author/CB)